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Presidents Cup: An early look at Team USA, one epic hot take presidents,cup,an,early,look,at,team,usa,one,epic,hot,take,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,presidents-cup-golf,golf-pga-tour,golf-news,liv-golf

On: June 26, 2024 By: admin

Welcome to Playing Through’s new morning ritual: Golf Talk Today.

Each morning will feature a Golf Talk Today, in which the crew will discuss various elements of the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and other professional golf tournaments.

Today begins a way too early discussion about the 2024 Presidents Cup. Team USA will travel to the Royal Montreal Golf Club from Sept. 24 to 29 to take on Team International.

Professional golf will get another trip to Canada in 2024 after a widely successful RBC Canadian Open. The golf fans in the Great White North do not disappoint, but will it be too much of a home event for the Americans?

In 2022, Team USA won its ninth consecutive Presidents Cup 17.5-12.5, improving to 12-1-1 all-time in this competition. While the Presidents Cup does not have as long a history as its fellow biennial Ryder Cup event, it still draws in crowds.

This year’s Team USA captain is Jim Furyk, and the International captain is Mike Weir.

There are six American PGA Tour players that qualify through points, per the Presidents Cup website. It did not mention LIV golf players because they were denied qualification last year. Various events receive points in the qualifying standings. Furyk will also get six captain picks.

Current Team USA Presidents Cup standings

*as of June 26, 2024, (points)

1: Scottie Scheffler: 12,734
2: Xander Schauffele: 7,142
3: Collin Morikawa: 5,513
4: Wyndham Clark: 5,121
5: Patrick Cantlay: 4,356
6: Sahith Theegala: 4,235

*On the outside looking in:

7: Tony Finau: 3,780
8: Max Homa: 3,772
9: Brian Harman: 3,669
10: Chris Kirk: 3,265
11: Russell Henley: 3,235
12: Sam Burns: 3,160
13: Akshay Bhatia: 3,102
14: Justin Thomas: 2,918

Scottie Scheffler holds a commanding lead in the standings. After six PGA Tour victories this season, he has all but officially secured his spot.

Many of the Ryder Cup team members from Rome could see themselves in Canada.

However, will Furyk take a similar approach to Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson?

A later Golf Talk Today will feature a more detailed discussion about who Furyk should have on his team.

Team USA Presidents Cup hot take

This take will be short and sweet.

Bryson DeChambeau should easily be on Team USA for the Presidents Cup.

Despite playing for LIV Golf, DeChambeau finished inside the top 10 in two majors and won the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. He is playing phenomenally right now, and the former SMU golfer will be a great addition.

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Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Rickie Fowler overcomes recent struggles, snags early Travelers lead rickie,fowler,overcomes,recent,struggles,snags,early,travelers,lead,sbnation,com,front-page,golf,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

On: June 20, 2024 By: admin

CROMWELL, Conn. — Rickie Fowler has not had a solid season, failing to contend in every event he has played, coming short of even recording a top-10 finish.

Yet, he discovered something on the greens on Thursday, which explains why he posted a 6-under 64 to open the Travelers Championship. He did not make a single bogey, either, as he shares the early lead with Akshay Bhatia and Kurt Kitayama.

“I made a nice putt just to save par and get the round going. Good up-and-down, that kind of got me going,” Fowler explained.

“Sometimes, I would almost rather that than birdie the first hole because then it’s kind of downhill from there. So, yeah, got off to a nice start. Birdied the 2nd. Started to see some balls go in, and making putts helps free up the rest of the game to where you don’t feel like you have to be perfect.”

Fowler missed his opening tee shot to the right, which nestled down in the rough. He then hacked it out, finding more thick stuff 44 yards short of the hole. An early dropped shot loomed, but Fowler went on to save his par from eight feet away. He also called that his best shot of the day.

But a big-time par save like that early in a round serves as a big boost of momentum, and Fowler fed off that. He only needed an incredible 23 putts to get around on Thursday, ranking 1st among the 71 players in this field in strokes gained putting. He even made a 38-footer for birdie on the par-4 17th, capping his best day of the season on the greens.

Yet, his putting prowess on Thursday is a far cry from what he has done this season.

Fowler ranks 131st on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting and 163rd in strokes gained overall. No wonder why he has yet to record a top 10 this season, with his best finish being a T-18 at Harbour Town. He also arrived in Connecticut fresh off missed cuts at the Memorial and the U.S. Open, the former of which he carded an 82 during his second round.

“I feel like a lot of it can go back to not putting well—putting well helps free up other things,” Fowler explained.

“You’re not seeing putts go in, and it adds some extra stress to having to hit greens or hit it closer, chip it close; that circle gets quite a bit bigger once you see some go in. That’s a big part. But when you’re not able to take advantage of it when you hit it well, putting is probably the easiest thing to point to. It does help a lot, but that’s not always the only thing.”

Fowler made 123 feet of putts on Thursday, which certainly freed him up. But now the question is, can he continue to rely on his hot putter? And, what if he did not get up and down at the 1st? How would this round have played out? At any rate, we will have to wait to find out. But for now, Fowler finds himself atop the leaderboard for the first time all season, a welcome sight for many.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

Mercedes’ James Allison admits feeling ‘dumb’ after early-season F1 struggles mercedes,james,allison,admits,feeling,dumb,after,early,season,f,struggles,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

On: June 20, 2024 By: admin

As the 2024 Formula 1 season unfolded, Mercedes found themselves lingering in the middle of the pack. Drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell described the W15, their team’s challenger for the current season, as being on a “knife’s edge.”

But in recent weeks, that edge has widened a bit.

A series of upgrades the team started rolling out beginning at the Miami Grand Prix, including a redesigned front wing, have seen the team deliver improved performance on the track, and in the standings. The Silver Arrows are coming off their best Grand Prix result of the season in Montreal, as Russell secured the team’s first Grand Prix podium with a P2 and Hamilton finished in P4. Those results, plus Hamilton picking up a bonus point for recording the fastest lap of the race, saw Mercedes bank 28 points in the Constructors’ Championship standings, their best result of the season.

According to Mercedes Technical Director James Allison, that result comes after feeling rather “dumb” when they finally pieced together some answers.

Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Allison opened up about the team’s start to the year, and their search for answers regarding the W15.

“The thing that has bedevilled us from the start of the year, the overriding thing, was that you could get the car okay in a slow corner, get it quite decent in a fast corner, but you couldn’t get it good in both at the same time,” described Allison.

That descriptions mirrors how Russell described the W15 at the Miami Grand Prix. Speaking to the media, including SB Nation, Russell outlined the difficulties in getting the car into the optimal operating window.

“The problems you know Lewis and I faced last year was with this sort of spiteful rear end, and now suddenly we are struggling to turn the car at its low speed corners, and it’s the front [end] That’s that’s sort of washing out,” described Russell in Miami. “So I think we’ve just gone too far in in the other direction, and we need to kind of find a halfway house from what we had last year and where we ended up right now.”

In Allison’s mind, the team finally solved the problems, delivering a more consistent car to Russell and Hamilton.

“What has changed in the last two, three races is that we’ve modified the car in such a way as it actually has a reasonable high-to-low-speed balance and a reasonable through-corner balance,” described Allison.

“Those are sort of boringly jargony things that it just means that the driver can trust both the front and rear axle in a fast corner and a slow corner, and can trust it from when he hits the brakes at the beginning of the corner, all the way through the apex and out the other side,” continued the Mercedes Technical Diretor. “That balance is crucial to a driver, that they know whether the car is going to understeer or oversteer, and that it’s going to follow the trajectory.”

Allison conceded the breakthrough was an “oh my God” moment for him and the team, terming it a “ … more of an ‘oh God, how can we have been so dumb?’-type moment where you see the path forward and you should have seen it sooner.”

Ultimately, the team went down an aerodynamic path to find the solution.

“A thing that we’d been fighting all year with springs and bars and all the mechanical accoutrements on the car, [we’re now] just attacking it with the aerodynamic characteristic of the car,” Allison told the Beyond the Grid podcast.

Having come to a solution, Allison believes Mercedes can be “as fast as anybody” over the rest of the season.

“I think that we definitely can get the car this season to be properly competitive and to fear no tracks,” he said. “I think that the specifics of this circuit [Montreal] might make our fans think prematurely that we’re already there. This circuit has quite a low range of cornering speeds in it, and it tests the car maybe slightly less severely than some of the others that are coming up.

“While I’m pretty sure that we will make a good showing in the nearby future races, I’d be surprised if we’re on pole at the next round, for example. But I am absolutely certain that we can be as fast as anybody over the coming period.”

You can listen to Allison’s entire appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast here.

U.S. Open: Patrick Cantlay’s short game helps give him early lead u,s,open,patrick,cantlay,s,short,game,helps,give,him,early,lead,sbnation,com,golf,us-open-golf,golf-majors,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

On: June 13, 2024 By: admin

If you have followed any coverage leading up to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, you know that this course is all about the greens.

You must have your short game on point around these crazy putting surfaces. You have to make plenty of putts, too.

Patrick Cantlay did just that on Thursday, which explains why he carded an impressive opening round 5-under 65. He gained 3.8 strokes around the greens, which ranks first among the field. He also hit plenty of solid iron shots, gaining 2.15 strokes on approach.

His round got off to a thrilling start at the par-4 11th, where he holed out for birdie from the sand, which provided a huge momentum boost early.

He then dropped a shot at the par-3 15th, his only bogey of the day, but bounced back with a birdie on the 18th to post a 1-under 34 to start. Having started on 10, he made the turn towards the front, where more opportunities presented themselves.

Cantlay birdied the 1st hole, thanks to a spectacular approach that landed five feet away. Two more birdies followed at the par-5 5th and par-3 6th, the latter of which came on one of the most challenging holes on the property. He drained a 20-footer there for his fifth par-breaker of the day, vaulting himself to 4-under for the tournament.

But his self-described best moment of the day came at the par-4 7th.

“I got the ball up and down on 7, made a bunch of putts inside, eight feet,” Cantlay said.

“I think around this golf course, you’re going to leave yourself putts inside eight feet. That four-to-eight-foot range. It is important that you hole out. I did that well today.”

After missing the fairway right, Cantlay hit his approach just short of the green on 7. He then chipped up to 5-feet away and drained the putt.

Then, on the next hole, the 486-yard par-4 8th, Cantlay hit his second shot to four feet, which set up his fifth—and final—birdie of the day.

He now leads Ludvig Åberg by a stroke at 5-under par on a course that will only get tougher as the championship wears on. Cantlay admitted that he did not have a score in mind this morning but knows the most challenging moments are yet to come.

“I didn’t think much of [the score],” Cantlay said. I knew going off at 7:40 in the morning, it was going to play maybe the easiest it will play all week, with the lack of wind and probably the softest we will see it. I’m really happy with the round I played today.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.